Description

"Another scintillating collection of brilliant problems and paradoxes by the most entertaining logician and set theorist who ever lived." Martin Gardner
"Smullyan is not your run-of-the-mill puzzlemeister; he polishes up old chestnuts, spins variations on a theme, and peoples his logical world with a delightful cast of characters." "Science 82"
"I believe Ray Smullyan to be the Lewis Carroll of our times. His little books of logic puzzles will be remembered long after most of us are forgotten." Peter Denning, Chairman of the Computer Science Department, Naval Postgraduate School
"You may experience small frissons of delight as you follow Smullyan into the dizzying heights of Godel's proof and the very nature of proof, truth, and logic in mathematics." "Kirkus Reviews
"Discover scintillating new perspectives on the principles of mathematical logic with this puzzle treasury. Inspired by the classic tale of a prisoner's choice between two doors, these whimsically themed challenges allow readers to base their decisions on logic rather than luck. Nineteen chapters advance from relatively simple puzzles and meta-puzzles to highly complex paradoxes involving probability, time, and change. The author, a well-known philosopher and magician as well as a celebrated mathematician and logician, was acclaimed by "The New York Times" as "a master at translating difficult ideas into stories and puzzles that require no formal background, only patience and a passion to learn.""show more

About Raymond M. Smullyan

Born in New York City in 1919, Raymond Smullyan is a philosopher and magician as well as a famous mathematician and logician. His career as a stage magician financed his undergraduate studies at the University of Chicago as well as his doctoral work at Princeton. The author of several imaginative books on recreational mathematics, Smullyan is also a classical pianist.Raymond Smullyan: The Merry Prankster
Raymond Smullyan (1919 ), mathematician, logician, magician, creator of extraordinary puzzles, philosopher, pianist, and man of many parts. The first Dover book by Raymond Smullyan was "First-Order Logic" (1995). Recent years have brought a number of his magical books of logic and math puzzles: "The Lady or the Tiger" (2009); "Satan, Cantor and Infinity" (2009); an original, never-before-published collection, "King Arthur in Search of His Dog and Other Curious Puzzles" (2010); and "Set Theory and the Continuum Problem" (with Melvin Fitting, also reprinted by Dover in 2010). More will be coming in subsequent years. In the Author's Own Words:
"Recently, someone asked me if I believed in astrology. He seemed somewhat puzzled when I explained that the reason I don't is that I'm a Gemini." "Some people are always critical of vague statements. I tend rather to be critical of precise statements: they are the only ones which can correctly be labeled 'wrong.'" Raymond Smullyan Critical Acclaim for "The Lady or the Tiger"
"Another scintillating collection of brilliant problems and paradoxes by the most entertaining logician and set theorist who ever lived." Martin Gardner"show more

Table of contents

PART I. THE LADY OR THE TIGER?Chestnuts--Old and NewLadies or Tigers?The Asylum of Doctor Tarr and Professor FetherInspector Craig Visits TransylvaniaPART II. PUZZLES AND METAPUZZLESThe Island of QuestionersThe Isle of DreamsMetapuzzlesPART III. THE MYSTERY OF THE MONTE CARLO LOCKThe Mystery of the Monte Carlo LockA Curious Number MachineCraig's LawFergusson's LawsInterlude: Let's Generalize!The KeyPART IV. SOLVABLE OR UNSOLVABLE?Fergusson's Logic MachineProvability and TruthMachines That Talk About ThemselvesMortal and Immortal NumbersThe Machine That Never Got BuiltLeibniz's DreamAbout the Authorshow more